Anyone Ever Replace A Hard Drive?

[Ron]

My Hard Drive in my HP computer is starting to act wonky.
I am looking to replace it with a new Hard Drive. A local computer shop has them dirt cheap.

I am wondering first off, how simple is it to change & two how do I transfer over my old data off my old Hard Drive to the new one including my operating system?

[berkeley]

Yes, I stopped driving through the middle of town and started using the expressway.

[NotforSale]

Originally Posted by Ron

My Hard Drive in my HP computer is starting to act wonky.
I am looking to replace it with a new Hard Drive. A local computer shop has them dirt cheap.

I am wondering first off, how simple is it to change & two how do I transfer over my old data off my old Hard Drive to the new one including my operating system?

It's very easy. Saving your data is also simple if you have a CD/DVD burner. You could also borrow somebodies external hard drive. I'm not too sure if you can have a shop transfer from the old hard drive to the new.

You basically just unplug and plug the new one in. The time consuming part is downloading all of your software and operating system.

Good luck!

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by Ron

My Hard Drive in my HP computer is starting to act wonky.
I am looking to replace it with a new Hard Drive. A local computer shop has them dirt cheap.

I am wondering first off, how simple is it to change & two how do I transfer over my old data off my old Hard Drive to the new one including my operating system?

It's easy. The easiest solution is to buy a kit that houses an external hard drive and comes with software to copy one hard drive to the other.

If it's just data you need you can unplug the old hard drive, install the new, install your operating system on it, then reinstall the old hard drive as a slave and the copy directly from it the files you need.

If you don't have the original install CDs and it's a major brand like Sony, you can buy the full install CDs for as little as 25 dollars from them.

Make sure you buy the right drive, Is the old drive an SATA? ATA?

BTW how do you know it's the hard drive going bad and not the OS?

[RandyWayne]

More times then I can count.

I also use a program called Acronis True Image Home 2009 to make a perfect byte-for-byte mirror image, including all partitions (hidden and visible), to the new drive.

[TroubleMaker]

Yes, I have replaced a hard drive. I went down to the Mac store, bought a MacBook Pro, and thereby, replaced my hard drive. Give it a try. You will be very happy you did!

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

More times then I can count.

I also use a program called Acronis True Image Home 2009 to make a perfect byte-for-byte mirror image, including all partitions (hidden and visible), to the new drive.

Acronis rocks. Avoid NORTON at all costs. I use Acronis tools for partitioning...got a Laptop and you want to recover some hard drive space on the second partition? This is your program.

I have Norton Ghost...after installing it I had no RAM left lol...kidding but you get the picture? Talk about bloatware

[Ron]

Originally Posted by Praxeas

It's easy. The easiest solution is to buy a kit that houses an external hard drive and comes with software to copy one hard drive to the other.

If it's just data you need you can unplug the old hard drive, install the new, install your operating system on it, then reinstall the old hard drive as a slave and the copy directly from it the files you need.

If you don't have the original install CDs and it's a major brand like Sony, you can buy the full install CDs for as little as 25 dollars from them.

Make sure you buy the right drive, Is the old drive an SATA? ATA?

BTW how do you know it's the hard drive going bad and not the OS?

It is an ATA does that make a difference?
What are the steps?

Thanks

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by Ron

It is an ATA does that make a difference?
What are the steps?

Thanks

Just make sure you buy an ATA. If you plan on leaving the hard drive in the case as a second hard drive to copy your files from, you might need another cable.

However I would look first and see if the cable has a second "slot" on it. If so then that would be where you plug in the old hard drive.

However you want to copy the entire hard drive to the other. Id be careful about that, making sure your problem really is a hard drive issue and not an OS issue.

You can use the acronis tool mentioned before to make a backup. It might be easier though to buy an external enclosure, USB or Firewire depending on your system. It will take a while to do that.

Also the enclosure has to be ATA also.

Put the new HD in the enclosure and then follow the directions from the acronis disk.

It really depends on what you want to do...close the old HD or just copy files because you have the operating system CDs

If you just want the files I'd just leave the HD in the case, maybe move it and install the New HD in it's place and then install windows or whatever you have on the new HD, then install the old HD and use it as a second HD to copy files directly from one HD to the other

[Ron]

Prax, could I back up my hard drive on a portable external Hard Drive & then try a Hard Drive recovery, will I lose all my data on the external Drive?